One of the delights of the hospitality scene in Shanghai is that many of the charming old hotels from the early 20th century still stand - and more importantly, still take bookings. In addition, some other interesting old buildings than began life for other purposes are now modern hotels. Because of its slightly unusual political status central Shanghai was largely spared damage during WW2, and you can still stay in many of these redoubtable old buildings.
If you had come to Shanghai in the 1930s you would have had the choice of several of grandest hotels in Asia. As a contemporary guidebook put it, "Shanghai offers ample hotel and hotel-apartment accommodation, with a wide variety of locations and tariffs". On the other hand, some Chinese observers of the time felt these foreign buildings were inappropriate. A 1932 local guidebook said, "these places have no relationship to us Chinese...and besides the upper class atmosphere in these Western hotels is very solemn, every move and gesture seems completely regulated."
Besides classical music, ballet is a traditionally Western art form being reinvigorated by Chinese talent and perspectives. China's National Ballet is winding up its performance of Raise the Red Lantern at the National Center for the Performing Arts, after a triumphant European tour.
The many who pay scant attention to ballet will probably remain unmoved by the assertion that dance, like painting, remains as relevant as ever in its ability to communicate on a level far more primal than even the most lovingly-crafted CGI character. They might want to pay attention to the latter performance, however, not just for the powerful movie on which it is based, but also for the fact that both are directed by Zhang Yimou. The man is enjoying a Spielbergian climb in artistic cache, and both his ballet and movie are greater testament to his artistic range and vision than even, dare we say, the Olympic opening ceremony.
The old woman had fainted and lay unmoving. No wonder, crowded Chinese train stations on a summer afternoon had caused younger and stronger bodies to swoon. The guards who searched her for identification stumbled on a book with unrecognizable characters, slender and spidery, where Chinese characters were blocky and solid. Even if these hadn’t been the chaotic days of the Cultural Revolution, the guards might have reported her to the police, who detained her on suspicions of being a spy. Only when local scholars identified the characters as purportedly extinct nu shu, “woman’s writing”, were the charges dropped; the scholars were re-educated for their trouble.
Forget the "morning after" clichés that would logically follow the end of Beijing's "coming out party" [may this mark the last time the phrase is written or uttered]. The past seven years have been no party - they've been China's holy PR crusade. Expats have spent the better part of a decade witnessing frantic façade building, and experiencing all the inconvenience that entails. Let's look at what Beijing's gotten out of being ground zero of the Battle for a Glorious Olympics, besides all the intangible pride and honor, and what we may expect from a city that can finally exhale and pad around the living room in its underwear.
There are games, and then there are sports. For a game to be a sport, there ought to be a certain degree of athleticism, a touch of daring, a dash of intestinal fortitude. The Olympics seems to be losing that distinction. Shooting, for instance, requires no more physical virtue than steady hands and a good eye. As to daring and fortitude, it's not like any of the contestants are shooting at each other.
Then there are events like badminton. Sure, it's zippy, but an ancient Greek boxer would surely arch a bloody eyebrow at the way Lin Dan pumps his wiry arm over each point like he's just slain a dragon with a sword, not a shuttlecock with an oversized fly swatter.
The larger point is that many sports your ancestors played resembled current Olympic sports, only with more physicality and courage. Read on for some heroic games the ancient Chinese used to play. Or you can go back to the death-defying ping pong finals.
You know you're on the fringes of China when you see lots of land and few people on it. Such is Qinghai, lonely buffer province between "China proper" and the exotic realms of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia. But its relegated status belies a fascinating history, and a culture unmatched for diversity anywhere else in the Middle Kingdom [at least ethnographically]. Its capital, Xining, is the only city in Qinghai with over a million people. For the cosmopolite, Xining is a stop-over on the way to Lhasa. For the urban frontiersman, it is a holdout against global conformity, a perfect jumping off point into a long simmering stew of cultural richness and nature at her most starkly magnificent.
We come to China to make new lives. Some of us come to make our fortunes. Almost no one comes to make a difference. But Koen Sevenants belongs to that rare minority, experiencing reward and charity, hope and heartbreak from day to day.
Over six hundred thousand children in China have one or both parents in prison, often mothers serving long sentences for killing abusive husbands. Many more parents are executed for crimes such as drug trafficking. In either case, the children are left behind in a limbo of despair. Their parents' criminal status deprives them of state care. The stigma scares off relatives and villagers who might otherwise intervene, because by ancient tradition children of the unfortunate themselves attract bad luck.
You don't have to go to Kunming to enjoy a breathtaking array of China's flowers. Olympic cities from Beijing to Shanghai have crafted floral arrangements as tribute to the Games. Here are the official flowers for China's provinces. We've also included a list of venues country-wide where you can view them.
Chinese : 桂花 gui hua
English : Osmanthus
Latin : Flos Osmanthi Fragrantis
Cities: Suzhou Hefei Guilin Hangzhou
Three of the four cities that boast sweet osmanthus as their official flower are also some of the biggest tourist destinations in China. Tiny and delicate, they are particularly prominent in Suzhou's many world-renowned gardens. Similarly, Hangzhou has taken advantage of their autumnal blooming season to feature them during its annual West Lake Osmanthus Festival in September. Yet despite the efforts of these two cities to claim the flower as their own, Guilin, or ‘The Forest of Osmanthus," as its name means in Chinese, has them both beaten: botanists believe the plant has been in the city for more than 10,000 years, and you can still buy a sweet wine made from the flower in the city today.
At eighty years of age, he admitted defeat. Whether in the Imperial Court or muddy alleys, men remained unnatural creatures. They muddled themselves with endless distinctions, knowledge that only stoked desire for the worthless. Could any unlearn themselves and return to nature's way? In stillness, Laozi heard the answer: not a one. Thus he prepared for a journey to the West, to the mountains from whence, a thousand years later, Buddhism would come. At the border of the Middle Kingdom and the wild beyond, a sentry prevailed on him to record his teachings. Laozi complied, and composed "The Way and Its Power", the Dao De Jing.
Guanxi is not a phenomenon unto itself. The component to “relationship” or “influence” is zeren, which we can translate as “duty” or “obligation”. To misapprehend this dynamic may lead one to dismissing the crucial role of guanxi in Chinaas an outdated myth. The misinformed rationalize that, since influence peddling plays a universal role in acheivement, and China is doing such an admirable job of imitating Western institutions, that the importance of personal connections must surely be receding into the shadow cast by the virtuous light of individual merit.
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Chinese : 桂花 gui hua
